Hanoi (VNA) –Vietnam’s exports to South America enjoy an annual average growth of 30-40percent with many popular and highly-competitive products, heard a workshop inHanoi on May 24.

Deputy head of the Trade Promotion Departmentunder the Ministry of Industry and Trade Ta Hoang Linh said with a populationof over 600 million people and total gross domestic product (GDP) of over 6trillion USD, South America is a potential market for Vietnamese businesses.

At the same time, he highlighted difficultiesand challenges facing businesses when entering the market such as geographicaldistance, transportation cost, cultural and institutional differences.

The bilateral trade between Vietnam and Latin Americais quite balanced. In 2014, Vietnam exported 4.71 billion USD worth of goods tothe market, a year-on-year rise of 36.8 percent. Vice versa, the countryimported 4.8 billion USD from the market, up 44.9 percent.

Vietnam mainly exported footwear, seafood, rice,garment-textile, coffee, plastic products, electronic equipment and components,and computers, while importing textile-garment and footwear materials, paper,plastic material, cattle-feed, soybeans, and cotton.

Former trade counselor of Vietnam in Chile TranDinh Van said Chile is one of the leading open economies in the world, andVietnam’s goods face fierce competition by counterparts from the South Americanregion and Asia.

Currently, Vietnam hassurpassed India and Thailand to become the biggest ASEAN exporter to Chile,ranking ninth among countries exporting to Chile.

The free trade agreement between Vietnam andChile took effect in January 2014, covering 9,000 lines of products.

This has created goodopportunities for businesses to boost exports to the market.-VNA